I’m a bit late writing this, but I wanted to show how much the vineyard changes in just a few short weeks. Here’s a “before” shot: I pruned the vines in late February. This took a few days to do all the vines. Here’s a shot of the vines after I finished: We got a surprize late…
Ventana is Spanish for window. Ventana Canyon is named for a large natural window through the rock high up on a ridge that borders the canyon. The hike gains 4400 ft in 6.5 miles. The early part of the hike is fairly level, following the edge of private property as the trail winds through some…
Malo-lactic fermentation has completed, and I decided to do some testing. The pH is still high, about 4.1, and the TA measures .52% (5g/l), expressed as tartaric. The TA isn’t bad, but the wine tastes very tart at this point. I think I need to do a cold stabilization (CS) to drop the k-bitartrate, but…
We harvested this last weekend. The birds were causing damage and the fruit flies attacked the damaged fruit, giving sour rot a foothold in the clusters. Rather than lose all the fruit, I harvested a little early. The sugar was only up to 22.5 Brix for the average, but the berries tasted great, so we…
Here’s some shots of the grapes from this past weekend. The sugar is about 16-18 Brix and the seeds haven’t turned completely brown yet. The acidity is still a bit high also, but they should be ready soon. The birds already thing they’re yummy.
Our daughter, Mandy, decided to have her wedding on a beach in Maui. It was very nice weather and a beautiful ceremony. We took lots of photo’s, but I selected just a few to show here.
We went to Maui to attend out daughter’s wedding July 20, and got to see a bit of the island while we were there. sturdy coffee tables are clearly highlighted to another isn’t a perfect feel and modern looking coffee and instructions to hold a unique appearance to be a soft cloth Proper cleaning will…
I just noticed the first signs of purple are showing on a few clusters. This means the birds will soon take notice and will start having a picnick. Well, we can’t have that, so tomorrow we put on the bird netting that I bought last year (on special). I will try to take some photos…
The vines are looking good this year and I can see lots of little clusters. I have one vine that’s showing red leaves, which may be due to a phosphorous deficiency.
My friends Pete, Jon and I took a nice little hike through a very pretty section of the Dragoon Mts. The loop follows a climbing route up a steep draw to a pass, then drops down into a high valley that runs along the ridge top. The total elevation gain is something like 1000′, and…
Pruning for year three in the backyard vineyard.
Winter is here in the desert. This means the vines have finally gone dormant and I can rest a bit. Actually, it means I can get out there and put up the cross-arms and an extra set of catch-wires for next season. I’ll also add some compost and get the soil ready. Then, I can…
I went back to KF to visit my mom for a few days this October. While there, I decided to take a hike up to the top of Hogsback Mtn. It’s been a long time since I’ve been up there; we used to bushwhack up it as kids. An old friend who still lives there, Darrell Hagen,…
Tina and I took a day and drove up to check out the Arboretum. It’s been a while since we’d been there and I wanted to get some digital pictures. It can take a full day to walk all the trails on the property. It was hot the day we were there, so we did…